Sunday, June 14, 2009

Gurch, aka Matthew Britton

Britton has been a WP editor since October 2005. Upon first appearing, he was immediately accused of impersonating another inactive WP user.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Gurch/Archive_1#Impersonation

Britton has developed a reputation for not adding useful information, but for simply reverting vandals and making trivial edits. He is also noted for his hostile and abusive treatment of others on WP.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Administrators%27_noticeboard/Archive153#Mellie.2FGurch
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Administrators%27_noticeboard/IncidentArchive336#Gurch.27s_conduct
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Administrators%27_noticeboard/Community_sanction/Archive9#User:Gurch
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Administrators%27_noticeboard/IncidentArchive246#Gurch:_possibly_compromised_account
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Administrators%27_noticeboard/Archive153#Heads_up_re_Huggle
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Administrators%27_noticeboard/IncidentArchive261#Gurch.C2.A0.28talk+.C2.B7+_contribs.29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Administrators%27_noticeboard/IncidentArchive313#Gurch_.28talk_.C2.B7_contribs_.C2.B7_deleted_contribs_.C2.B7_logs_.C2.B7_abuse_log_.C2.B7_block_user_.C2.B7_block_log.29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Administrators%27_noticeboard/Archive88#Apology
http://wikipediareview.com/index.php?s=&showtopic=15909&view=findpost&p=79340
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Gurch/Archive_20#Please_stop
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Gurch/Archive_21#Blocked_for_24_hours
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia%3ARequests_for_adminship%2FGracenotes&diff=132964504&oldid=132963416

He has run for adminship twice--the first time in 2006,
he was successful, but resigned after six months.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Requests_for_adminship/Gurch

The second attempt was unsuccessful.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Requests_for_adminship/Gurch_2

He has also used "sockpuppet" accounts: Qxz, Gurchzilla, Huggle, and possibly others.
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Qxz
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Administrators%27_noticeboard/Archive138#Would_I_be_allowed_to_distribute_Huggle.3F

Why does Britton not find himself banned from Wikipedia? His primary claim to fame is not his editing. It is his creation of Huggle, a popular tool for reverting Wikipedia "vandalism".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Huggle

Huggle is routinely misused and abused. People who want to achieve adminship use it to artificially inflate their edit histories and make themselves look more "competent". This is an excellent example of the sick nature of Wikiedpia society: Gurch created a software tool that accelerates editing, and it is widely misused. And even though he himself is a hostile troll, he is treated with great deference by WP's insiders, because he created that tool.
http://wikipediareview.com/index.php?showtopic=23718
http://wikipediareview.com/index.php?showtopic=18593
http://wikipediareview.com/index.php?act=ST&f=5&t=23421&hl=&view=findpost&p=163574
http://wikipediareview.com/index.php?act=ST&f=45&t=23381&hl=&view=findpost&p=162893
http://wikipediareview.com/index.php?act=ST&f=10&t=23473&hl=&view=findpost&p=164110
http://wikipediareview.com/index.php?act=ST&f=19&t=21359&hl=&view=findpost&p=143969

Britton is believed to be a college student in the UK, although very little hard information can be located about him. His email is matthew.britton@btinternet.com, he has spent some time on Wikipedia IRC channels.

2 comments:

  1. You successfully 'outed' someone that openly uses their real name? Not really that impressive.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Gurch is interested in LGBT, Zionist and atheist
    matters. He is a friend of Yaris678, with the same interests.

    ReplyDelete